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Photo: Koichi Torimura
In many cities, automobile owners are required to provide their own off-street parking, which means swapping habitable space for garages or berths. Pictured is Dancing Living House in Yokohama, designed by ALX.
In Japanese cities, the average house is 1,075 square feet. That makes sense when you consider that the country has a landmass smaller than Montana but a population that puts it at number 11 worldwide. Creativity abounds despite such constraints, notes Naomi Pollack in Jutaku: Japanese Houses (Phaidon, $25), which comes out this October. Pollack, a Tokyo-based architect, showcases more than 400 examples of contemporary residential design that defy gravity, redefine comfort, and dispel Western ideas of home. Featured work comes from up-and-coming designers as well as established architects such as Shigeru Ban and Jun Igarashi.